The Generation Gap

by Liz Greene

Like death and taxes, the misbehaviour of youth,
we are told, is always with us. Complaints about adolescent flouting
of parental and civic authority may be found in literature from
Ovid to Shakespeare, and life amongst the medical students at
the University of Montpellier in the 16th century, according to
the outraged townspeople, was just as rowdy as it is today at
Harvard Medical School. "Youth," said Oscar Wilde wearily, "is
wasted on the young." The phenomenon of the "generation gap" has
never been as vividly demonstrated as in the 1960's, when the
chasm between the conservatism of age and the iconoclasm of youth
appeared all but unbridgeable. Bob Dylan's seminal lyrics describe
it concisely, although they hint at something far greater than
the younger generation flexing its muscles against the older one:

Come
gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agein'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

Yet to think in terms of an inevitable age-versus-youth
conflict between authority and rebellion, between experience and
naivety, between limits and exuberance, between responsibility
and freedom, is too simplistic. There are certain biological determinants
which ensure that, when we are young, we have more physical energy;
and psychologically we may have less containment and less rigidity
when it comes to expressing ourselves, because the ego has not
yet become "set" in its habit patterns and defences. Repeated
confrontations with worldly limits may also sometimes, although
not always, play their part in making us less inclined to take
risks when we are older. The archetypal polarity of the senex
and the puer aeternus reflects this inherent life process. But
beyond these very general factors, the picture is more complicated
than it might seem. Not only individuals may break the mould,
but also entire generation groups. The face of the senex may reveal
itself in the young, the face of the puer in the old.

Those who have watched the television series,
Absolutely Fabulous, may glimpse, in the character called Edina,
a florid exaggeration of the "flower power" generation which dominated
the social upheavals of the 1960's. Edina is a mother who is entirely
identified with the more rampant form of the puer aeternus. She
smokes dope, drinks herself into oblivion, pursues promiscuous
and often disastrous sexual liaisons, dresses like a bad advertisement
for psychedelic drugs, and thinks and speaks in a fashion which
many people would normally associate with irresponsible, self-centred
adolescence. Astrologers might recognise a mocking portrayal of
the revolutionary thinking, incurable romanticism, and ruthless
self-expressiveness of the post-war "me" generation, with Uranus
in Gemini, Neptune in Libra, and, most importantly, Pluto in Leo.
In stark contrast, Edina's daughter, Saffron, is prudish, stodgy,
studious, and deeply ashamed of the antics of her feckless mother.
Saffron does not touch drugs, is wary of promiscuous sexual behaviour,
dresses "like a Christian" (in the words of Patsy, Edina's equally
appalling crony), and eats sensibly. She is a realist who has
no illusions about human nature, and she does not waste her time
fantasising about how the world could be. She is so well grounded
that she is incredibly, irredeemably dull. Astrologers might recognise
a mocking portrayal of the pragmatism, cynicism, and brutal honesty
of the generation group born with Neptune in Scorpio and Uranus
and Pluto in Virgo.

This mother-daughter relationship presents
us with a reversal which gives the series its punch and humour;
and, although hilariously exaggerated, it is nevertheless a peculiarly
truthful portrait of a particular dynamic between two generation
groups in the second half of the 20th century. They are divided,
not by chronology, but by attitudes. Here it is the old, not the
young, who kick against the confines of senex codes. If we wish
to understand the sometimes irreconcilable conflicts which are
so often set in motion between parents and children, generation
groups need to be viewed, not merely from the perspective of age,
but from the perspective of values. A generation group is not
defined merely by time. It also exhibits inherent perceptions,
responses, attitudes, and needs which make it unique. Generation
groups reflect the quality, not the quantity, of the time in which
they are born.

How long is a generation? A biological generation
may be anywhere from fifteen to eighty years apart from its predecessor;
we are dealing with the vagaries of procreation when we assess
generation groups in these terms. Some people still in their teens
have children; others wait until their thirties or forties; some
men start second or even third families in their sixties or seventies;
with the advent of Viagra, the eighties are entirely feasible;
and with the possibility of freezing sperm for an indefinite period,
there may be no limit at all, and a posthumous child may be engendered
by a father who has been dead for a couple of centuries. Grandparents
may be young or old, and it is possible, if one gets moving early
enough, to be a great-grandparent at forty-five. But if we think
of generation groups in terms of the qualities which they embody,
then we need to avail ourselves of the broader insights provided
by the astrological model, and consider the outer planets and
their cycles.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in the birth chart
portray three different but overlapping generation groups reflecting
fundamental needs and longings inherent in the collective psyche
during the period when each of these planets transits through
a particular zodiacal sign. We each belong to a Uranus generation,
a Neptune generation, and a Pluto generation. We have more in
common with the Uranus generation that lived 84 years previous
than we do with those born only 7 years earlier. We have more
in common with the Neptune generation that lived 178 years previous
than we do with those who were born 14 years earlier. And we have
more in common with the Pluto generation born 246 years previous
than we do with those born with Pluto in the previous or following
sign. These planets provide us with a complex mapping of the cyclical
qualities of time and the growth pattern of the larger unity to
which each of us belongs. They also tell us about how our particular
Uranus generation perceives and pursues progress, what our particular
Neptune generation idealises as the path to redemption, and how
our particular Pluto generation mobilises when survival is threatened.
Beyond our individual value systems and character qualities, we
each belong to larger groups which envisage evolution, salvation,
and transformation in different ways. When we respond, not as
individuals but as units in a collective, we respond through the
outer planets in the birth chart. These responses may be relatively
conscious and in harmony with our individual values, depending
on how the outer planets "sit" in the natal chart; but they may
also be relatively unconscious or in deep conflict with everything
we thought we believed in. We may be surprised, shocked, and even
overwhelmed and fragmented when these deeper collective levels
of the psyche are activated.

It should be remembered that, although Bob
Dylan was catapulted into prominence as one of the major prophets
of his generation during the great Uranus-Pluto conjunction of
the 1960's, Dylan himself was not born under that conjunction.
Born in 1941, he belonged to the generation group with Neptune
in late Virgo trine Uranus in Taurus. Personal planet involvement
such as the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn in late Taurus and the Sun
in early Gemini conjunct natal Uranus and trine natal Neptune,
and Mercury in late Gemini square natal Neptune, ensured that
he was able to translate the vision of his generation into highly
personal creative work. The timing of this was not accidental;
Dylan entered his period of greatest creativity and popularity
while the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the '60's moved over natal
Neptune, trined natal Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Sun,
and brought to flower the potentials inherent in the natal configuration.
In other words, the collective needs of the 1960's dovetailed
beautifully with the collective values inherent in Dylan's generation
group, and his poetry and music thus became the vehicle for both.
That remarkable trine between Neptune and Uranus which occurred
in the early 1940's, common also to John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
and Mick Jagger, seems to have reflected a vision of progress
which embraced not only political and social change but also spiritual
aspiration. That this configuration, moving from earth into air
signs, presided over virtually the entire period of the Second
World War may seem strange in light of the promulgation of peace,
equality, and spirituality expressed by these generational prophets,
especially by Lennon in the song, "Imagine". But Hitler's Reich
was also a reflection, albeit a vicious and distorted one, of
a vision of political and social change combined with spiritual
aspiration. Jagger, with his natal Sun and Pluto conjunct in Leo,
is perhaps more in touch with the darker elements inherent in
his generation group, as is demonstrated in the song, "Sympathy
for the Devil."

Perhaps most fundamentally, these generational
icons share the placement of Pluto in Leo. In terms of generation
groups, when Pluto moved from Cancer into Leo, a profound change
occurred in the survival mechanisms of the collective; and this
planetary shift is perhaps the astrological significator par excellence
of an inevitable collision between parent-child generation groups.
Those born with Pluto in Cancer tend, on the instinctual level,
to perceive survival as dependent on family, community, and national
bonds, which provide a sense of emotional belonging, continuity,
and safety. These were the individuals who were prepared to go
to war and die for King and country even if, as individuals, the
war itself made no sense to them. Those born with Pluto in Leo
tend to instinctively perceive survival as dependent on ferocious
individuality and determined self-expression even in the face
of opposition. Amongst these are the individuals who, whether
through arrogant egocentricity or an intuitive perception of the
individual's power to create a different reality, made their own
decisions about their personal destiny, and refused to fight in
Vietnam.

Bob Dylan was born on
24 May 1941, 9.05 pm, Duluth, Minnesota, USA.
John Lennon was born on 9 October 1940, 6.30 pm, Liverpool. Paul McCartney was born on 18 June
1942, 2.30 am, Liverpool.
Mick Jagger was born on 26 July 1943, 6.30 am, Dartford.
By the time the latter two were born, Uranus had moved out of
Taurus into Gemini, but was still trine Neptune. It also now formed
a sextile to Pluto in Leo.

Outer planet configurations between parents
and children

Exploring the patterns of astrological generation
groups can take us into many spheres of human interaction and
endeavour, and a single article cannot possibly do justice to
the depth and complexity of this theme. However, I will touch
on one of the most valuable areas of insight which the perspective
of astrological generation groups can offer - the interaction
portrayed by outer planet involvement across two birth charts
in parent-child relationships. Some difficult issues between parents
and children may be reflected by conflicting aspects between the
personal planets, reflecting deep dichotomies in personal attitudes
and values. A boy's Mars opposition his father's Moon may lead
to some energetic conflicts of will, and perhaps even to violence
in some cases; but such conflicts are unique to those two personalities
and do not invoke deeper collective forces. And some resolution
is possible if the father can understand that his son is a unique
individual with self-assertive needs quite different from his
own, and if the boy, when he is more mature, can can exercise
the same objectivity about his father's emotional outlook and
needs.

Other difficult issues between parents and
children may be linked with Saturn and Chiron cross-aspects. The
former describe dynamics rooted in personal defence mechanisms;
the latter, although collective issues are hinted at, also enact
themselves through personal defences against feelings of hurt
and woundedness. A girl's Moon square her mother's Saturn may
suggest a definite chill which dampens their emotional relationship.
But some resolution may be possible if the mother can recognise
the unconscious envy and anxiety which her child invokes in her,
and if the girl, when she is more mature, can see beyond her feelings
of rejection to the deeper meaning of her mother's apparently
impossible expectations. A boy's Sun conjunct his father's Chiron
may describe mutual hurt and misunderstanding; but some resolution
may be possible if the father can face his own feelings of woundedness
and inadequacy, and if the boy, when he is more mature, is able
to recognise his father as an ordinary flawed human carrying wounds
inflicted by a world much larger than the family.

However, some issues are bigger and deeper
than individual personality interaction, and any resolution may
depend on a much broader perspective. A child may appear to a
parent, not as an individual, but as a representative of a vast
collective force which can seem profoundly threatening to all
that the parent stands for and believes in as an individual. And
when it is the parent who embodies the power and vision of a whole
generation, the child may feel terrified and overwhelmed. Parents
and children may also interact through the medium of outer planet
aspects to other outer planets across the charts. In such cases,
both stand for the collective might of their generation groups,
and may have difficulty in perceiving each other as individuals
unless personal planets are also involved in the configuration.
Anyone who has perused the charts of successive generations within
a family will have noticed the frequency of close contacts - especially
the "hard" aspects - between outer planets and personal planets
across the birth horoscopes. These contacts are often within 1º
of orb. One may be forgiven for getting the feeling that there
is method in this cosmic madness, and that when such links appear
between parent and child, or parent and grandchild, some deeper
evolutionary pattern is at work which involves the group as well
as the individual. Individual reductive psychology may fail to
penetrate to the meaning of the responses which are activated,
and we may have to expand our psychological models to grasp what
is at work.

There are, of course, individual dimensions
to such contacts. Cross-aspects between the outer planets in
one chart and the personal planets in another can be understood
partly through the basic principles of synastry. For example,
if a girl's Uranus is conjunct her father's Sun in Gemini, his
lively, restless, and intellectually curious nature will activate
the spirit of progress and inventiveness in her - not always in
a comfortable way - while she, in turn, may prove - again, not
always comfortably - to be a source of potential creative awakening
in him. The disturbing, electrifying energy of this contact would
be visible from early childhood, and such a cross-aspect between
father and daughter could prove enormously creative and intellectually
stimulating, as well as conducive to alienation. Or, if a mother
has Mars in Libra and her daughter's Pluto conjuncts her Mars,
that mother may find her daughter's obstinacy and emotional fixity
baffling, frustrating, and sometimes infuriating, while the daughter
may feel deeply threatened by what she perceives as her mother's
aggression. The explosive energy of this contact would likewise
be visible from early childhood, and power battles would probably
be inevitable between mother and daughter - although each may,
with some consciousness, eventually help the other to be more
honest about emotional and assertive needs and desires.

But interpreting such aspects in this way,
while useful and valuable, may not go far enough. More is happening
here than one person interacting with another. One person interacts
with a whole generation, represented by the individual with the
outer planet involved in the cross- aspect. The daughter whose
Uranus in Gemini conjuncts her father's Sun will shake him up
and make him think about life differently, not simply because
he perceives her as inventive and rebellious, but because, for
him, she embodies the enormous power of a generation group whose
perception of human evolution depends on breaking down the rigidity
of old and outworn intellectual structures. The mother whose Mars
in Libra conjuncts her daughter's Pluto may feel overpowered and
inclined to fight back, not just because she perceives her daughter
as intense and inflexible, but because that child has at her back,
like an invisible army, an entire generation whose survival depends
on imposing a particular set of ideals of fairness and justice
on human relationships. The relentless pressure of Pluto does
not reflect the child's personal power-drive, but the bottom-line
necessity of a collective which cannot tolerate any deviation
from its vision of what is necessary in order to avoid extinction.

We can briefly explore a demonstration of
this kind of parent-child generation dynamic through an example.
Although their charts have been used ad nauseam, the British royal
family is always useful in this respect, because the birth times
are documented and the continuity goes back for many generations.
Naturally, we need to work extensively with our own family charts
to get a clearer picture of generational dynamics, because it
is from direct personal experience and family "lore" that the
deeper patterns of the generation groups become visible.

Generational games in
the royal family

Powerful generational aspects may occur,
not only between parent and child, but between the parent and
the individual whom the child, when grown, chooses to marry. What
the family psyche needs but does not possess amongst its members,
it tends to instinctively
acquire through marriage, so that its myths and complexes can
unfold and be worked through over the generations. It is therefore
important, when examining family charts, to include not only the
direct blood line, but also the spouses. For the sake of both
brevity and clarity, I am listing only the relevant chart placements
of a few specific members of the Royal Family, rather than reproducing
the entire birth charts.

There are, inevitably, links involving the
outer planets between the Queen's chart and that of her father,
King George VI; he had a conjunction of Uranus in 22º 07' Scorpio
and the Moon in 24º 51' Scorpio, and this conjunction squares
the Queen's Neptune in 22º 02' Leo. The Queen also has Saturn
in 24º 26' Scorpio, at the MC in 25º 33' Scorpio, and both conjunct
her father's natal Uranus. We may speculate about the personal
issues described by the Saturn-MC-Moon contact across the two
charts, and surmise that the emotional relationship between the
Queen and her father was chilly but indestructible, and that a
strong sense of responsibility and powerful but unspoken bonds
of duty and social obligation replaced simple affection and spontaneous
emotional exchange. But here we also have two outer planets in
square across the charts. This is more difficult to understand,
let alone summarise in a few words. Uranus in King George's chart
exactly squares Neptune in Queen Elizabeth's chart. The spirit
of progress, for those born with Uranus in Scorpio, seeks expression
through compulsive destruction and rebuilding, through the mobilisation
of survival instincts in the face of that which threatens life,
and through courage in the throes of battle. Where a battle is
not found, one will be created; in the King's case, there was
sufficient battle going on in the world outside to satisfy any
Uranus in Scorpio vision of evolution through crisis. In stark
contrast, the dream of redemption, for those born with Neptune
in Leo, is expressed through a fantasy-world where all is bright
and beautiful, and where one's own life is both an act of sacrifice
and a symbol of divine authority for others, similarly Neptune-bound,
who seek release from their own dreary lives. The Queen both shares
and embodies perfectly the mythic longings of her own generation
group. It is not surprising that she is unwilling to let go of
them.

Here, two generations collide: the older,
which lived through two world wars and made an idealogy of facing
the harsh truth and building on the ashes of what had been destroyed,
and the younger, which preferred to turn its back on the bleak
hardship of the world and pursued a fairy-tale vision of splendour
and the divine right of kings. Such a square between parent and
child, unless reinforced by personal planets, might not necessarily
erupt in personal conflict. Here there is reinforcement: the King's
Moon squares his daughter's Neptune, and his Uranus conjuncts
her Saturn. He must have seemed emotionally erratic and compulsively
depressed to her. She, in turn, must have seemed incomprehensible
to him - and perhaps to her mother as well, who also has the Moon
in Scorpio - because the Queen is the vessel for the grandiose,
chivalric dreams of a whole generation. That generation is certain
of its special spiritual role, in love with a code of honour and
excellence which, while noble and beautiful, may be too disconnected
from the trials and tribulations of ordinary life and the egalitarian
propensities of the present Uranus and Neptune transits through
Aquarius. When Neptune transited through Leo, the world longed
for glamour and magnificence, and needed shining models; this
was the era of the great Hollywood film stars. King George VI
may have found his daughter strangely arrogant and unworldly,
not because of a specific failing in her individual character,
but because something else, something pervasive and powerful and
universal, peeped through the personal realism and tenacity of
her Taurus Sun and Capricorn Ascendant.

Something profoundly intelligent appears
to be at work in family patterns involving outer planet contacts.
Prince Charles was born with the Sun in 22º 25' Scorpio, conjunct
Chiron in 28º 13' Scorpio. The close conjunction between his Sun
and his grandmother's Moon reflects their emotional closeness.
The conjunction between his Sun and his mother's Saturn reflects
the great weight of expectation he feels from her, and the degree
to which it both limits and shapes his destiny. But Prince Charles
also has a powerful outer planet link with the grandfather whom
he knew only in childhood; Charles' Sun is exactly conjunct King
George's Uranus. Charles, as an individual, embodies that search
for the hidden truth which the King's Uranus generation group
pursued as a collective vision of progress. He is, in a way, the
culmination in personal terms of the strivings of his grandfather's
generation. But Charles' Sun-Chiron in Scorpio also squares the
Queen's Neptune. It is not in the least surprising that Charles
has sought to pursue his own development, intellectually, emotionally,
and sexually, in ways which must seem directly threatening to
his mother's Neptunian dream.

Charles, in turn, must feel bewildered, let
down, and perhaps subtly manipulated by his mother, and profoundly
irritated by her insistence on clinging to an ideal which, for
him, is no longer valid in the world he perceives around him.
The Queen belongs to a generation group wedded to a glorious redemptive
vision of grandeur and nobility. Charles also has Pluto in 16º
33' Leo. This is not in close conjunction with the Queen's Neptune,
but it is a conjunction nevertheless. There is something in Charles
which he shares with his Pluto generation: a survival instinct
which depends on an inner sense of specialness and a profound
conviction that the individual's voice matters. In this respect
he instinctively feels what his mother feels, not as a romantic
ideal, but as a necessity - although the square between his Pluto
and his natal Sun suggests that he is in conflict with his own
generation group as well as with hers. He has more in common with
his grandfather than with those of his own age.

Perhaps, on some deep and inaccessible level,
Charles did not feel he had the power to stand up to that Neptune
in Leo vision of noblesse oblige. His natal Pluto pulls him into
collusion with it. So he chose (or had chosen for him, but nevertheless
accepted) a partner whose planetary pattern added enough fuel
to his own to challenge the generational dream described by his
mother's natal Neptune. Princess Diana had natal Uranus in 23º
20' Leo, conjunct the Queen's Neptune. There is a certain inevitability
in the way in which these two women polarised as the voices of
their respective generations, and in the determination with which
they perceived each other as enemies. Neptune in Leo dreams of
redemption through a heart-fuelled vision of a higher, nobler
world; Uranus in Leo perceives human progress in terms of the
individual's capacity to break down existing authority structures
to release the potential of creativity for the group. Diana's
natal Moon in 25º Aquarius and her natal Venus in 24º 23' Taurus
describe her own inner conflict with her Uranus generation group's
self-willed ideal. But when one puts together the explosive combination
of Charles' Scorpio planets and her natal T-cross, all challenging
the Queen's natal Neptune, the annus horribilis takes on an altogether
different cast. For the Queen, this marriage must have seemed
to herald the disintegration of her most cherished fantasies of
redemption, and Diana's generation group must seem like a guerilla
army determined to spoil the party and destroy the last vestiges
of royal privilege and dignity.

Inevitably, Prince William will carry on
this generational pattern, which hints at a long, slow evolutionary
process working its way through the centuries. William's outer
planets are closely linked with personal planets in both his parents'
charts: his Neptune-Ascendant conjunction, in 25º 32' and 27º
30' Sagittarius respectively, is conjunct both his father's Mars-Jupiter
conjunction and his mother's Ascendant. It would seem that his
parents embody, on a personal level, that longing for spiritual
enlightenment and hunger for meaning which is essential to the
Neptune in Sagittarius generation's dream of redemption. The "New
Age" activities of both Charles and Diana will undoubtedly sit
well with their son's generation group. But William also has Venus
and Chiron exactly conjunct in 25º Taurus, and his personal values,
developing partly through hurt and sorrow, are not in accord with
either his grandmother's collective romantic vision, his mother's
ferocious collective self-expressiveness, or his father's compulsive
collective survival instinct. William's Neptune in Sagittarius
is trine the Queen's Neptune in Leo, and both share the fire signs'
dream of a better, grander, nobler world. But for William, that
world can be found only through a moral and spiritual quest, and
not through an affirmation of personal specialness.

Making friends with the outer planets

In the old days, astrologers used to talk
about the outer planets as "dumb notes" in a birth chart; they
were "unimportant" and not considered especially relevant to the
individual's life. Now we know better, and those astrologers who
study collective trends know how very powerful is the voice of
the collective psyche in terms of individual destiny. When the
outer planets are powerfully linked with personal planets in the
birth chart, the individual is, more than others of his or her
generation, a mouthpiece for the collective. Such a person needs
to be able to create appropriate vehicles for that collective
vision, while still maintaining individual integrity and an ego
strong enough to process collective energies through personal
values, aptitudes, and experience. The child whose ego cannot
contain these things may be swept along by the forces which reflect
the zeitgeist under which he or she was born, sometimes achieving
great creative expression and sometimes disintegrating into psychosis
- or both. The child who fights against his or her generation
group, and attempts to suppress the larger entity to which he
or she belongs, may suffer equally. A sense of profound isolation
may be one by-product. Another may be powerful internal and external
eruptions which leave the individual feeling utterly powerless
in the face of the forces of change. Links between parent and
child involving the outer planets suggest that each can help the
other to recognise and develop the gifts and perceptions of their
different generational groups, perhaps contributing more positively
to an evolutionary process in which both are required, willingly
or unwillingly, to participate.

Sadly, such links often result in a furious
battle which may be blamed on personal factors. Perhaps it was
highly inappropriate for the Queen to blame Diana personally for
her rebellion against the royal status quo; Diana was a mouthpiece
for her generation, and those born with Uranus in Leo are not
lightly predisposed to believe in Neptunian dreams. Leonine creative
vision may be common to both, but these two outer planets are
opposite in meaning and reflect, respectively, intellectual and
emotional perceptions of the same dimension of life. Neptune seeks
fusion with a higher unity through idealisation and self-sacrifice;
Uranus seeks progress through the creation of new idealogies.
If a parent wishes to be helpful to a child when such contacts
exist between the two charts, it may be important to recognise
not only the child's individuality, but also what that child stands
for as the representative of an entire generation. The wise parent
will encourage the child to find appropriate vehicles through
which collective needs and dreams may be individually expressed,
rather than reacting blindly to what is perceived as a threat,
or identifying blindly with what is perceived as the apotheosis
of one's own generational dreams. A good example of the latter
dynamic is the link between Joseph P. Kennedy's conjunction of
Neptune and Pluto in Gemini and his son's natal Sun in Gemini.
John F. Kennedy (*) was perceived by his father as the living
incarnation of Papa Joe's generational vision of redemption and
continuity through education, social mobility, and political power.
The result was, inevitably, that John F. Kennedy never had a chance
to become John F. Kennedy, except in the context of his father's
ambitions - not personal ambitions, but those of an entire generation.

*See also "The Oracle and the Family Curse", for
an analysis of the Kennedy family charts.

A great deal of further research is needed
to comprehensively map out these great collective daimones which
flow down through the generations, described by outer planet links
between family charts. And the natal picture is not the end of
the story. Generation significators not only link up across the
natal charts of parents and children; they are also mobilised
at specific times by individual outer planet transits, and during
those periods when the conjoined cycles of two or three outer
planets reach a critical juncture. For example, during the period
when Prince Charles and Princess Diana experienced the breakdown
of their marriage, Pluto was transiting through Scorpio, activating
not only their personal planets, but also the Queen's natal Neptune.
For the Queen's entire generation group, this was a time of crisis
and disillusionment. The "dirt-digging" propensities of Pluto
in Scorpio, flushing out all those spheres where emotional dishonesty
threatens survival, ensured that those born under the redemptive
vision of Neptune in Leo were forced to face, at last, the impossible
gap between their vision and the reality of human sexual and emotional
nature.

As individuals, we cannot control or dam
up such great collective movements. We participate whether we
wish to or not. But we can choose to participate creatively or
destructively. We can feel ourselves to be unwilling victims of
malevolent external forces. We can puff ourselves up with collective
dreams and convince ourselves that we are the embodiment of divinely
inspired change. Or we can engage in the humbler, harder task
of refining our own character and talents to act as mediators,
contributing as best we can to the positive unfoldment of what
is essentially a greater human necessity. We need to have enough
consciousness of where our own individual personalities merge
into something larger, in order to construct something valid and
life- enhancing out of our generational needs and compulsions.
We also need to offer our children sufficient wisdom and containment
to honour their very different generational dreams. As astrologers,
we may relate best to those clients whose outer planets are in
harmony with our own; if we have Pluto in Leo, we may relate better
to those young people with Pluto in Libra than to those with Pluto
in Virgo, and we may find it very hard to sympathise with the
energies of the Pluto in Scorpio group, which we may experience
as quite threatening. Neptune in Libra relates better to Neptune
in Sagittarius than to Neptune in Scorpio, and Neptune in Scorpio
relates better to Neptune in Capricorn than to Neptune in Sagittarius.
Whether we are parents or astrologers - or both - the generation
gap will continue to exist, not because age and youth are in inevitable
discord, but because the great collective cycles require a different
vision at a different time. While we may never personally share
the visions of other generation groups, we can at least recognise
that they are an essential part of a much greater unfoldment of
life.

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